“In your head…in your head…Arne, Arne, Arne.”
First he came for their long balls. Then he came for their largesse (“they have spent more money than us in the last three years”). Next he might want to take a long, hard look at his own Liverpool team, who were for far too long flat, unimaginative, sloppy and disjointed at the home of the Premier League’s form team.
Forest fans regaled the Liverpool manager – usually so diplomatic that most opposition fans barely notice him, never mind get riled by him – with their own version of the Cranberries protest song. Damn right Forest were in Slot’s head, which must have been whirling after an hour in which Liverpool had not had one single shot on target.
They were certainly not lacking possession but they were severely lacking any kind of composure or the requisite guile to test a Forest side who had not conceded a goal in a month. You’ll never beat Murillo? Add Milenkovic, Aina and Williams to that vaunted list as they ticked over seven hours without conceding a goal.
It took the most ridiculously inspired double substitution to produce Liverpool’s first shot on target, which cancelled out Chris Wood’s Forest opener. Kostas Tsimakas’ first touch was a corner; Diogo Jota’s own first touch was a goal.
Slot had decided that Liverpool really had no need for two centre-backs to combat Forest’s understandable and total lack of attacking ambition and it’s at that juncture – after Matz Sels had twice denied Jota a second – that a controlled game of largely toothless attack v staunch, organised defence became something closer to basketball.
Eventually Liverpool regained the upper hand and peppered the Forest goal; zero shots on target in 66 minutes became seven in the final half-hour, with Sels utterly brilliant in denying Jota, Mo Salah and Cody Gakpo. And when he was beaten, Ola Aina cleared off the line from the Egyptian.
That was as good as it got from Salah, who ghosted through a first half in which his most notable contribution was to lose the ball in the build-up to Forest’s goal. Otherwise, he made poor attempts at finding teammates, was sloppy in and out of possession, and looked a million miles away from a footballer who is the favourite for the Ballon d’Or.
On this evidence, nobody should make him the highest-paid player in the world.
He improved in the second half but there were poor touches, poor decisions and poor finishes from a man who has looked spent during the first weeks of 2025; he was shackled barring a penalty against Manchester United, looked all of his 32 years against Tottenham in the Carabao Cup and has now drawn a blank against Forest. In Salah terms in 2024/25, this is now a drought.
Salah has started every single Premier League game for Liverpool and Slot must be edging closer to giving him a rest than a massive new contract. Right now the first attacking name on the teamsheet for Saturday’s trip to Brentford should be that of Jota, who has scored three goals in his last five games despite being largely restricted to a bit-part role.
What was clear from his travails at the City Ground is that Luis Diaz is ill-suited to the role of striker, his hesitation when breaking with Gakpo allowing the excellent Murillo to pull off a phenomenal piece of defending that would have been rendered moot by the right decision from Diaz.
Liverpool remain six points clear at the top of the Premier League table and favourites for the title, though the gap may close in both instances if Arsenal beat Tottenham on Wednesday night. They will be very happy indeed not to face Forest again this season. In your head, Arne…
